There's Not Enough of Me
by bleederdoll
Summary: A bunch of short stories of the life of Bakura after his return to the living.  Originally posted on Tumblr  Couplings are all over, some OCs, read with this warning in mind.
1. Laundry Day

**Laundry Day - Fanfic of bleh**

"Bakura…"

I groaned, burying myself into the pillow. I raised the covers over my head as the lights turned on. Damn it. I heard footsteps coming toward me, before it stopped by my bedside. A hesitation was heard in their breathing before a hand came atop my shoulder, shaking me gently.

"Bakura, please, it's time to wake up; you promised you would do the laundry today," came the quiet voice with the barest hint of a British accent.

I gave a gurgled growl, curling myself under the blankets. Suddenly, the blankets had been snatched and I was instantly chilled. Sitting up now, I gave a glare to the lighter half of me, Ryo. The young man was dressed well: his light blue shirt tucked into his dark blue denim pants. Everything about him was clean, proper and strangely professional. I gave him a look of confusion as he started talking to me. I couldn't even understand them in my half asleep state, so instead, I flopped back onto my back and closed my eyes.

"Bakura!"

"Nnngh!" I moaned back, burying my head under the pillow

"I'm sorry I'm a bit out of commission at the moment. Mind coming back a few hours when I'm more able to function?"

I hear a sigh from him, then fingers tickle down my side. I sit back up again with a jolt, hitting my head on his. I gave a few curses, nursing my now bruised head. He was doing the same but without the curses.

"What the fuck…?"  
>"At least you're awake now," he said while giving a light smile as he continued to rub his sore head. I gave him a glare but instead he ignores it.<p>

"I have to go to college, Bakura, so can you at least do the laundry like you said you would?" Ryo asks, no longer rubbing his head.

I mumble under my breath as I feel a headache coming on. "I'll get you something at the store."

"Fine…"

I fall back into my pillows staring up at the ceiling. He comes into view, giving me a look of amusement and then he was gone. He closed the door behind him, softly, and then was followed by his footsteps down the stairs and out the garage door. Knowing the hikari, he probably left it open knowing that I would close it behind him. Damn…

—

Laundry, I say, wasn't exactly something I normally did. If anything, the hikari was the one who did the laundry, cooked the food and cleaned around a bit. I, on the other hand, lived like a freeloader, often stealing things for our meager survivability but usually or I should say, _lately, _I didn't do much. I stayed in my room, contemplating and thinking about the strangest of things.

Ryo had noticed my lack of mischief so he took matters into this own hands. Making me do laundry. Ridiculous.

I looked at the laundry basket filled with dirty clothes, most of which was mine seeing as Ryo cleaned every weekend. I just happened to let it all pile up…which was a mistake now. Looking at them, I mentally groaned at my dilemma, how do you **do **laundry? Looking down at the piece of instructions neatly written by my other half on a piece of notebook paper, I got to work.

_1. Separate the clothes in darks to whites_

I dumped the clothing down on the tile floor of the laundry room. Biting the inside of my cheek, I got to separating. It was rather easy, seeing as I had mostly dark clothing. There was a few red, whites, and even a blue. Mostly my socks and boxers were in pile of 'whites' and my normal day clothes were in the 'dark' pile. How convenient. I proceeded to throw the dark colours into the washing machine filling it up to the brim.

_2. Put in the laundry detergent for colours. If it's white clothing, a bit of the bleaching detergent with the colour. _

I stared at the piece of paper in confusion. The fuck? Huffing, I grabbed the detergent that worked on colours and dumped some in, moving my arms around in order to get all the clothes. I closed the lid before looking at the paper again.

_3. Turn the dial to clean the stains (Knowing you, they would probably need it)_

I pouted. I wasn't that messy. I did as he had written though, turning the dial and a few others seeing as the load was obviously not a normal load but a super one. I pressed down on the larger dial and bam, it was alive! Now I had to do the most awful task...

_4. Now you wait!_

Why did that sound so cheery?

—-

Waiting for laundry to finish was too long and boring, so instead; I went onto the computer to bother a certain someone I knew had no work today. Lucky me. Booting up the computer, it didn't take long till it asked me to sign in. Once getting in and letting the machine do its work of logging into every messenger I had out there, I clicked on a certain someone's username.

**ThiefyB: **Ah you're actually on!

I waited a moment, seeing that he was typing back. I grinned.

**xXSleepingKingXx: **…Wai aren't you sleeping?  
><strong>ThiefyB: <strong>I had to do laundry  
><strong>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>xD LOL! WUT!  
><strong>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>You  
><strong>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>Do**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>Laundry?**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>That's unbelievable!  
><strong>ThiefyB: <strong>Yes…yes laugh it up. It's terribly hilarious.

I pout, not at all amused with the current events. Something furry bumped into my leg. Looking down, I saw the head of the cat Ryo and I had adopted. She looked up at me with bright green eyes. I ignored her looking back onto the conversation.

**xXSleepingKingXx: **Sorry just that…**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>That's just funny xDDD**  
>ThiefyB: <strong>Psh! Your face!**  
>xXSleepingKingXx:<strong> Orlynao?**  
>ThiefyB: <strong>You and your strange way of chatting**  
>ThiefyB: <strong>So exactly why do you have a day off?**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>I've been working without taking any days off for about…**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>Two years? **  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>So yea, day off**  
>ThiefyB: <strong>So…just out of the blue?**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>No. Boss told me I deserved a day off since we're not doing much but the same thing every day. **  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>Yet yesterday was hectic lots of orders**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>x_x so many people**  
>ThiefyB: <strong>Still want my fucking cake**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>stfu about your cake!**  
>ThiefyB: <strong>Bitch**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>Whore!**  
>ThiefyB: <strong>Skank!**  
>xXSleepingKingXx: <strong>Wannabe thief!**  
>ThiefyB: <strong>Egotistical pharaoh!

The words were written back and forth. Soon, it was an all caps battle and before I knew it, he was on webcam, flipping me the bird.

"Fuck you, Pharaoh!" I glared. He shrugged his shoulders in a 'I don't give a crap' way.

During the two years we had returned from wherever the fuck we were, everything between us changed. Maybe for the better? Maybe for the worse? If anything, I got more depressing and hardly was mentally capable of being with people for too long. The pharaoh, on the other hand, started working a few months after he had returned to a cafe; baking goodies for people and making smoothies, coffees and tea. He had worked his way up to being a manager even. In all that time though, he changed his view of me.

He was kinder and sometimes we had our own bits of mischief. I asked him about this and he merely answered that the past is the past and what had been done can't be undone. That we let it go and move on and he did and had forgiven me. So I tried to do the same in my own way, but it left me uncertain. Broken. And worse than what I had been mentally.

I looked at him this time through the webcam and stuck out my tongue. Today, the pharaoh was wearing a large shirt, one sleeve sliding down his shoulder to expose the skin and black muscle top he wore under it. His hair was just as wild as ever and his skin still the same pale colour as it been years ago when he had been in the same body as Yuugi. His eyes were a dark violet and along his wrists were many different types of bracelets; some rainbow coloured, black, spiked, or they were the circle little 'candy' ones. How they hell they got their names is beyond me.

While the once pharaoh dressed fashionably, I dressed rather plain.

"You're so gay…" I grinned as he shot a glare at me through the cam. He then gripped the mic at the end of the headset, bringing it up to his lips.

"And you're still an ass," he said, his voice being rather loud at the headset that hung around my neck, but that was because of how close he pressed the mic.

A loud buzzer rang through the air. I sighed. Slowly I got up, muttering about the horribleness of laundry and how the world must be some cruel thing.

"Have fun with cleaning clothes," I heard him say in a chipper tune as I walked out of the room.

"Fuck you, Pharaoh!" I yelled back, which caused him to laugh a little. Bastard.

—-

Looking down at the wet clothes, all I wanted to do was burn 'em. But the smell that was coming from them was rather…alright. Opening the dryer, I started to chuck them into it, humming a useless tune as I did so. Soon, they were all in there.

_5. Grab the box that looks like tissues, throw in about one or two of the sheets in_

I do as he had written, grabbing the said box and giving it a sniff. I'm overcome with an instant headache and coughing. Damn, that was a strong smell. Grabbing two pieces of the sweet smelling paper, I throw them into the dryer, close the door with a _bam_, and turn the dial around. Hitting the button, it went on a nice humming spin. I returned to the task of throwing the other dirty clothes into the washer.

An hour later of bugging the pharaoh and us throwing insults at each other, I went back down stairs, and deposited the now dry clothing into the hamper and fled the room. This was again repeated when the last set was finished and that day, I felt tired yet strangely accomplished.

In the late noon, Ryo returned from college, looking extremely tired but alive. At least barely. He looked down at me the moment he entered the kitchen, where I was sprawled on the cold floor sucking on a ice cube in my mouth. He didn't question it; just walked over me and asked if I wanted some dinner. Instantly, I asked for one thing in particular.

"Miso soup…"

He looked down at me, raising a brow but did as I asked. That night, we had soup and it was the best soup ever.

—-

"So tell me Bakura…nothing's changed in that head of yours?" the pharaoh asked over the mic as we continued to play some co-op game that involved killing zombies. I ignored him for a moment as we killed hundreds of zombies before we reached our safe room.

"Well…I'm not suicidal..."

He hummed in agreement. "But…?"

I swallowed audibly, looking at the door to my room. Taking off the headphones, I walked over to the open doorway and closed it silently. I then take my seat back, placing the headphones around my neck again. Finally, we're off the loading screen in the safe room where his character is staring at the entrance to the other part of the area.

He removed the bar once he sees my character move around to get ammo.

I rushed my character over the door and we're back into a murdering zombie rampage. I never answered his 'but' question. No. I just entertained myself with killing zombies and he never pushed forward the question that night again. I knew though, that again he'll ask the next day and the next day and I would dodge the question each time. It was a game of sorts, to see how long I ignored the help.

How long I could try to be stubborn. With each passing day I realized...

It wouldn't be that long.


	2. Fold 'Em

Sleeping was somewhat of a luxury for me; having to just sleep in a bed, wrapped in blankets and surrounded by pillows. If I could do this for the rest of my life, I would honestly be happy. What surprised me was that Ryo went into my bedroom again, saying something about how I didn't finish the laundry, and instead dumped the clean clothes on the guest room bed. I vaguely remember throwing a blue pillow at him, waving my hand and mumbling a good 'meehhhhh' before I once again left for the lovely place of dreamland.

Yet today I was again denied a sleep in.

What stirred me out of my bed was the sound of the door bell. I lay there, in bed, in my half asleep/half awake state. My eyes were closed and myself wrapped around two pillows; one between my legs the other I held tightly to my chest. I pretended to not hear it, slowly drifting off.

**Ring.**

I groaned, nuzzling into my pillow, hoping that it had magical powers to rid me of whoever was ringing my damn doorbell.

**Ring.**

I sit up in bed slowly, the pillow still held close to my chest as I glare at the closed door of my bedroom. How dare they? Let them burn in hell.

**Ring.**

Fucker. I tried to get myself out of bed but instead tangle my legs in the sheets. I cursed, kicking them pathetically away until finally, I was out of bed on wobbly feet. My hand came up to rub the back of my head as I walked out the door, accidentally slamming it against my bedroom wall. The cat we had adopted sees me, and gives me a meow of a greeting as I passed her on my way to the stairs. As quickly as I could while still being tired, I make my way down, the feel of sleep now leaving me cranky and wanting to murder something, _anything_. Was that the same thing?

**.**

I swung open the front door, coming face to face with the tri-coloured, spiked hair bane of my existence! He stood there, looking at me with a stoic expression as his finger continued to ring the doorbell. After a torturous few seconds of hearing him ring the bloody bell, he squeezed himself inside the house, leaving me staring out my front door in a 'what the fuck?' moment of my life.

I think I'm going to have to take back my supposed friendship with the ex-pharaoh.

"Well, you look like you've been attacked by a bear or something, Bakura," he said, removing his leather boots before stepping onto the wood floors of our house. Turning to glare at him, he looked at me in the most innocent way possible. That little -

"Before you start attacking me with profanity at my mother and how supposedly gay I am, I'm here to teach you… how to fold laundry," he said as he gave me a wicked smile, his dark violet eyes sparkling with mischief.

Kill me… please.

—

"You really don't know how to fold these?"

"Do you think I would really do idiotic stuff like this?" I hissed out as he poked around the clothing in the guest room.

Instead of wearing my PJ's, which really was a large shirt and my boxers, I happily changed into some light blue jeans that probably had seen better days. They were ripped at the knees and because they were much too long, the bottom of the legs' pants were to the point that some of it just started to tear out in strings. I even now wore a striped red and black t-shirt with some logo of a skull wrapped around by a snake. At least the pants wasn't that bad compared to some, as I noticed the worn out jeans.

Yami wore nothing strange from what he casually wore when he wasn't working; which was his usual interesting bits of tight clothing. The leather pants, the black armbands, and even the flipping tight t-shirt. But don't forget about the many bracelets he collected through the years though, as he even had a fucking collar around his neck with a bell on it.

"You know Bakura… folding clothes isn't that hard." The ex-pharaoh looked at me over his shoulder.

I mumbled under my breath. I wished he would roll over and die sometimes.

After a bit of spitting back and forth, I was _forced_ to drag my laundry to my room. The prick didn't even help me with that, no. Instead, he watched me and ordered me around as he went busy himself in the kitchen. Whatever he was doing, I didn't like it. The fact that he was helping me with folding my damn laundry wasn't satisfactory either. I was going to lock my hikari away in the closet and hold him for ransom.

"I never knew you were the type to actually wear such… interesting undergarments," he said in amazement.

"…Shut up," I said heatedly. He chuckled, placing the garment in the pile I carried in my hands. My cheeks burned with embarrassment, damn him.

—

One day… I'll only buy one certain pair of socks, that all look the same so I wouldn't have this problem. I looked at the white socks, fuming. There they were, innocently lined in rows on my bed, just waiting to find their partner and be put in my drawer. But there was a dilemma in their plan... or well, my plan as I couldn't tell which one went where. I never knew that socks came in different types of lengths, some being higher than your ankle, some just below your ankle, and some just right there at your ankle.

Why did I have so many?

"Need help?"

I visibly jumped, whipping around to growl at the male in warning. He ignored me yet again, with his eyes only on the socks.

"Like I need your help!"

"Ah, but I think you do… I never did like folding socks either," Yami admitted truthfully. Scooting beside me, he grabbed at the socks and began to find their other half. Huffing in annoyance, I did the same. The whole process was… strangely quiet in a calm sort of way. We said nothing but continued to find the socks' other half, and soon we were done, left only with socks that we couldn't find their partners. How sad.

"I guess you can put these in a bag or something till you can find the other ones… or if you want, you could always wear a different sock on each foot," Yami smiled while I could only tiredly glare at him.

If dreams did come true, then why was the pharaoh still in my house? And not under some rock?

—

I ate my bento box meal in silence. The pharaoh went all out in making me some food in my kitchen. Salmon rolls graced my light blue bento box with a small cup of soy sauce, tempura and even a couple sausages in a shape of octopuses. What was I, a kid? But I wasn't going to complain about it much; it was good and he did make more than just that what was in my box. Mmm…sushi.

I spare a glance at him as he eats his beef bowl. I had finally finished the laundry and my reward was him making me sushi and a few other foods to eat later tonight. He also even made a meal for Ryo, which I would be taking a few things from, thank you very much.

In all my years, the thought had never crossed my mind that the pompous pharaoh, who saved the world, who I had tried to destroy many times, and was the hero in the story, was a cook. A _very_ good cook. Who worked in a cafe and lived a rather normal life in this present day and age. How he adjusted to life like this amazed me and made me jealous. Using my chop sticks, I picked up another salmon roll and placed it in my mouth. There was no need to be jealous of this ass!

The sound of him placing his bowl down on the table broke me out of my thoughts. He placed the chopsticks over the bowl neatly, and wiped his mouth clean with a napkin. Those violet eyes then looked at me with very solemn eyes.

"What are you going to do, Bakura?"

"With what?" I asked, acting stupid. I reached over to take a tempura from the flat plate and dipped it into the sauce that it was made for. Yami stared hard at me as I feel the pulse in my neck accelerate but I ignored it. Keep calm.

"With your life? With everything… you haven't exactly adjusted to life here," he explained.

"I don't know…"

"You never seem to know. You just sit here in Ryo's place playing games… you don't even steal anymore or cause any trouble," Yami frowned, "Not that I mind the absence of it, but it's still very unlike you. Even if we participated in causing a bit of trouble with the gang… you still don't do much else. And now all you do is stay cooped up in the house."

I huffed, placing my box down.

"And you know I'm not exactly mentally alright."

A sigh breathed out from his lips.

"You also know that I want to help."

"I still think you're a tad bit late."

"But it's never too late."

Never too late... the words rang out like a bell in my head as I felt the burning sensation behind my eyes. That feeling... but I bit the inside of my cheek and kept it down. Fuck the weakness.

"Maybe it is and you just don't see it," I said weakly.

Pathetic.

He looked at me with a helpless look before he reached over, and ruffled my hair.

"You really are stubborn," he said with such a melancholy tone.

"I know…" I picked up my bento and began eating again.

I was stubborn. I didn't need anybody's help, no matter how much I wanted to kick my stupid pride away and scream, punch, and wail out. But help was for the weak. I had lived out my life alone as it had been filled with violence, death, and vengeance. Yet now… now it was something I wasn't used to and I was afraid of this new change.

This peace. This… point in my life where I was back in some new age. I was forgiven, I was someone without magical abilities. Without my vengeance.

And that…

Terrified me.


	3. I Bug You

I can't say that I'm a morning person or that I was fond of waking up before ten in the morning. But there I was, staring up at the plain ceiling above me... wondering what in the devil why I would be up at... _blink..._ I turned my head to glance at the alarm clock. Eight in the morning… it was too early.

This was weird. Insane. I repositioned myself under my covers, muttering about how cruel the world was being by waking me up at some hellish hour. Who woke up at this hour?

"Bakura!" sang the voice of my hikari, as he walked through the doorway. I mumbled under my breath as he made his way over to me. I peeked out from under my sheets, glaring as viciously as I could from my place. He looked surprised for a moment before he returned it by smiling gently at me.

"You're never up this early."

"…I know that."

"Why the sudden change?" he asked as he sat down on my bed, his eyes on me the whole time. I had the instant urge to kick him off but then thought better of it; I still wanted dinner.

"Possibly because I've been woken up too early in the morning by too many people," I huffed. He looked away for a moment, pursing his lips in thought. Ryo then nodded before he lifted himself off the bed. He dusted himself off of imaginary dirt while he made his way over to the doorway. Again, he's dressed all nice and fresh... probably for another school day.

"Well… it's always good to greet the sun!" He cheerfully threw out as he leaves me be in my PJ's, under the warmth of my blankets, making me cuddle deeper into the bed.

Warmth. Bed. Blankets. Pillows. I don't wanna move! But a groan escaped from my lips as I thought that the world was really cruel!

—

It's not every day that I walked outside. For the past two weeks, I had kept myself cooped up in the house by eating the fridge and cupboards of its contents. Ryo once said that if he didn't fill up our food supply every week, I would die from starvation. Which wasn't completely true. I could always go steal from the neighbors.

So today just happened to be a very unusual day. Well, in particular, I was outside making my way down the streets of Domino like a pro. Well, not really. Mostly, I just glared at anyone who looked my way, but that's not the point. My main point was that I'm outside. OUTSIDE. Going on a mission really... but then again, it really wasn't much of a mission. Just… I just needed something answered and there was one place in particular where I could find that someone who could answer the question.

So, there I stood, squinting my eyes at the sign above the cafe. It was in bold English letters, spelling out the name of the place. Taking a deep breath, I entered the building, causing a ringing sound of a bell above the door to go off. Instantly, I'm hit with the smell of coffee that made me wrinkle my nose. The cafe was not that full at all, really, but maybe it was because it was still early or something. A few people sat around drinking coffee or something, or reading the newspaper, or chatting amongst themselves, or even doing some work on their laptops. Looking up at the counter, I saw only two females there; where one was either making the coffee or taking orders.

It seemed that my target wasn't here or… that he was hiding. I bit my bottom lip in annoyance. I suppose I'll just have to take matters into my own hands. I got in the small line while I patiently made my way up.

Soon, I was at the counter, looking at the many choices of goodies and drinks to have.

"What would you like today?" the young woman asked. I stared at her for a moment, wondering if I should be an ass or not. She was a copper headed woman and her long hair was held up in a high pony tail. The locks on the sides of her face were not held up, and instead; they curled around her face and down her shoulders. She wore the traditional uniform of the establishment that consisted of a light blue apron with the cafe's name and symbol on it, which was ironically a white cat. The rest being a simplistic black pair of pants and a shirt.

Giving a sniff, I looked up at the menu that hung high above them before nodding.

"A blueberry muffin and an apple juice."

The red head gave a nod with a smile as she rang up my order into the register. I gave her the money and soon, I had my little snackage. Now, it was time to just sit up in a chair and relax.

He better well damn be here… or this'll be a waste of good time of trying to sleep.

It didn't take long until the pharaoh showed up, though. He walked out of the back room, rolling his right shoulder as he came out of the door. Greetings came from the two female employees and he cheerfully answered back. Suddenly, a sudden hush of whispers of women surrounded me. I blinked, leaning forward in my chair as I did a double take of the cafe. There was definitely more people in here than before... and they were mostly of young women.

_Twitch_.

My world was suddenly coming to an end around me. Fucker had a fan base.

Through a mother fucking _cafe_!

I slurped the last of my apple juice through the straw noisily. I felt a headache coming on.

"Bakura?" Oh shit.

I moved my eyes over to the pharaoh, who was now standing beside me with a look of surprise. Yami wore the uniform as well, except; around his wrists were his usual bands, but there were noticeably less of them.

"Yo," came my reply.

He smiled at me before he took a seat in front of me. He was practically beaming and I couldn't seem to figure out why.

"You usually don't come outside," the pharaoh stated. Fucker.

"… I wanted answers."

There I said it. Yami blinked, looking suddenly confused. He moved a bit, sitting back into his chair, looking quite comfortable.

"About...?"

"About how you knew that I didn't fold my laundry…"

Silence followed shortly after for a moment before he made any sign of saying anything. But then, a chuckle. He was chuckling! He covered his mouth as he tried to stifle his laughter. I continued to glare, hoping that it would kill him. Maybe if I tried hard enough, he'll burst into flames.

"Heh…that's why...?" he chuckled out between words.

He had yet to burst into flames... and I must be clearly lacking in something...

"I don't exactly go out asking anyone for help on laundry," I hissed quietly, noticing that I suddenly had the women giving me serious glares of doom. Seething heathens they were! Animals!

"You're just not someone who does laundry," he pointed out and even went as far to pointing a finger at me. I glowered silently. "But if you must know… Ryo told me to help you out."

The hikari? Yami must have seen the look on my face because he smiled gently at me again, but with a slight gleam in my eyes. "Besides, I didn't mind helping out."

"I don't need-"

He stood up abruptly. I stared after him for a moment as he made a beeline to get behind the counter. My mouth fell open.

Did he just…?

He didn't just...

He did!

Yami ignored me! Instead of continuing our conversation, he was up there, taking orders, and even talking to his fellow employees. What. The. Hell?

—-

"'Kura…you alright?" came the quiet questioning voice of my hikari.

I laid there under my bed... cuddling with a pillow and eating some ice cream-like mochi. Until this very moment, I never really understood a lot of things. I suppose that the pharaoh had to do his work first before being able to really talk to me. I grabbed another piece of the tasty pink delicacy. Mmm. Strawberry.

And I guessed second that he probably didn't really want to hear about the fact that I didn't need his help. Which was an utter lie. I actually didn't want his help but needing it… I probably did need it even if was only to fold laundry.

A finger brushed up against my cheek, giving a light poke. I looked over to see the worried face of my hikari, who in his clean clothes, had went down on the floor and had put himself half way under the bed to get to me. Oh how I wasn't going to help him clean those clothes.

"Something wrong?"

I looked at him, then at the mochi and before looking slowly back to him.

"Yea… something's wrong."

He opened his mouth to say something but I beat him to it.

"We need more strawberry mochi."


	4. Best Day

I had nearly forgotten what day it was. The body that was sleeping beside me, nuzzled into my chest, was that of my hikari. He was sleeping peacefully, with his arms held tightly around me to keep me in place. How and why he ended up in my room without me noticing wasn't something I questioned on this day even if I was curious. He was such a fragile creature but he did have his strong moments, so I suppose that made him likable. My eyes fell on the alarm clock as I read the red digital numbers that told me that it was now half past nine. I sat up slowly so that I wouldn't disturb the boy holding me, but he was already awake.

Those doe brown eyes looked at me in a sadness that I could understand. Today was a day for mourning. It happened every year on the same day. A day when two planes crashed into two towers.

And people had died.

—

Ryo didn't do much that day. He stuck to me like glue and even played games with me. He was so unusual that it scared me when this day first hit. For him to be a depressive being, seemed impossible to me, but there he was; following me like a kicked puppy. I bit my lip as he made us some lunch that included some baked salmon with onions, potatoes, and carrots.

What could I possibly do to stop him from being so depressed?

When our meal was finished cooking, we ate in silence... which slowly started to tick me off. He was never silent. After this day, everything usually went back to normal. But right now, it was just… annoying.

Finishing my meal, I stood up quickly, slamming my hands down onto the table. Ryo's startled expression glanced at me in astonishment.

"We're going out and we're going to have fun," I growled between my teeth, "And you're… going to enjoy yourself."

"But Baku-"

"No buts!" I shouted. He seemed so taken aback, but really; my outbursts were never that surprising, were they?

"You're not going to be depressed on this day because people had died! Mourn for them… yeah, but not the whole bloody day. You should at least make this day the best because people did die and it's a mourning day!"

What the hell was I saying? Was I going into some Anzu friendship mode or something? Hell, maybe the pharaoh was rubbing off on me with his goodiness. Oh shit. My life was horrible… but I kept going with my rant.

"Make this day the best because they never will again!" I finished, sitting myself down as I crossed my arms with a frustrated huff.

There. I did a good deed… somewhat.

He stared at me, mouth agape, and all I can think of was if we had any strawberry mochi left. Suddenly, Ryo was up and hugging me tightly, losing my train of thought on the deliciousness.

"The hell?"

"You're r-right," he exclaimed, his voice quivering. He leaned back and I saw those chocolate brown eyes brimming with tears. Well, jeez, how the hell was I going to deal with a crying Ryo? I wasn't good with crying people.

"…I am?"

He nodded. Guess I could be right about something.

"Let's make this day the best day ever; alright, 'Kura?" he said as a wide grin appeared on his face, those tears streaming down his face.

"Sure," I muttered, feeling my mouth wanting to smile back. Smiles were a contagious when he created them.

In a matter of minutes, we were out the door, cash in our pockets, and with backpacks on our backs. He even wore his signature blue and white striped t-shirt, blue denim pants, and white tennis shoes. Me, I just wore a black t-shirt, some jeans, and black converse. Ryo was skipping beside me as we started our little adventure.

Fuck, we even had our poke-walkers with us.

This shit was on!

—

"You don't suppose the dead want us to mourn?" he questioned.

We sat on a park bench, drinking hot cans of hot cocoa from the vending machine. The sun was setting, leaving the park in a blue and orange glow. It was rather beautiful, if I actually cared for the scenery. No, I was more concerned with the little one, more than anything else.

Our day was enjoyable. We went to an arcade first, where I kicked some ass, and then almost literally did kick someone's ass after they thought they could pick on my landlord. Unfortunately, he dragged me away, saying that if I didn't beat them to a pulp, he'd get me some pocky and marshmallows. I agreed, but not without glaring and threatening their very lives.

After that, we stopped by the pharaoh's work, where he greeted me with a hello and I, in turn, demanded the cake that he still owed me. He only grinned at me but gave me my cake while I still had to pay for half of the total for it, since he had paid the other half of it with his paycheck.

Finally, we ended up in the park, eating the cake on little plastic plates and with plastic forks to boot. The opened sweet sat between us and, I noted, that it was a really good cake, too. Vanilla frosting with some strawberry glaze... Hell, the cake was a fucking vanilla-strawberry cake of greatness! Mmm.

At his question, I could only take another bite and swallow.

"Mourning for the dead is natural, but I don't know if it should be done forever." Another bite into the slice and I was in heaven again.

"Then what do they want us to do?"

"Not to forget them."

He looked up at the sky, pursing his lips. Ryo always seemed to do it when he was in thought... or just thinking in general, actually.

"I suppose that would be right..."

I made a sound of agreement as I stuff myself with another slice of cake.

"Besides," I said between chews, "why make a sad day even sadder? Just make it better."

He turned to me, grinning and with his brown eyes sparkling. Did I say something wrong? Or great?

"You should do what you say, too."

"Huh?"

"Be positive instead of moping around the house."

I pouted, putting my finger in the frosting and swiping it on his nose and cheek. He squeaked, and did the same thing to me. We soon began to fight around with our cake, smothering it all over on each other's faces.

That day, we had made the most out of a day by having a lot of fun. And we also had wasted a perfectly good cake.


	5. When Your Sick

Chapter 4 - When You're Sick

AN: _Because I had a pretty rough day today, I still have my headache and my friend was a little sick this morning. I was inspired to write this little shit. Bakura…you are so fun to write._

_—_

This day was just as unusual as my week had been. I woke up early and was greeted by my hikari who had skipped out of the house (not that that was an unusual occurrence). I actually went grocery shopping and then somehow managed to end up at the cafe that the pharaoh worked at. I walked into the establishment, holding the strap of my backpack as it rested comfortably against my back. My eyes surveyed the area, noting that in fact that there was... less people than from the usual.

Usually, it was filled with the pharaoh's fan-base of women with too much hormones, of which I had finally decided that they needed to be killed one at a time. Fanbase….urgh! I shivered at the thought of them. The next thing I noted was that the pharaoh wasn't even there. It was very… strange for him to not be at work. He never missed a day, even on the holidays that he worked. Except probably for that day when he helped me with the laundry.

I had to get to the bottom of this! Detective Bakura was on the case.

Now that just sounded stupid.

Making my way up the line, I was face to face with the red head from before. She looked up at me with wide eyes then smiled. "Hello," she greeted me cheerfully. Urgh! Cheerfulness! "Is there anything I can get for you?"

"Where's Ya-… Atemu?" I muttered, using the pharaoh's real name.

It was just sorta weird that he wrote everything using his real name, and yet, everybody called him Yami… urgh. Everything was just too weird.

"Actually he went home early today," she said sadly. I sensed something strange here.

"Eh?"

Confusion at its best.

"He came here sick as a dog, and the boss told him to go home to get some rest. Even though he wanted to work…" she continued in that same soft voice, with some concern. Stubborn goat.

"Psh! The ass... well, thanks anyway!" I said, giving a wave. Then out the place I went. It was time to hunt down some pharaoh ass!

—-

You would think that the pharaoh lived in the middle of Domino, but no; he actually lived on the outskirts of it. I had to take a train to get my ass all the way here. I better get my money back from him! It took about 3 stops until I had to get off, and the rest of the way to get to where he lived was about fifteen minutes.

If we had to put it all together it took about forty-five minutes to an hour to actually get from his workplace to his home. Now _that_ was crazy.

When I arrived at his place, it was just as I remembered. He lived in a two story apartment building, each floor separated into only 2 living spaces. So really it was a rather large place to live in if you could pay for it. On the bottom floor, I knew the old land lady lived there, and her son's family lived beside her. And on the top, there was Yami's place and some chick I hardly hear about who lived nearby. From what I knew she was a drinker who could hold her liquor real good.

How I knew this… that was a totally different story.

Entering the complex, I was greeted by the land lady who was watering the plants outside. She was a small woman, her hair already a brilliant gray that was tied up in a low bun. The clothes that she wore was a pink apron, white pants, and a cream coloured shirt. If I remember correctly, her name was Mina. She looked up at me, smiling. "I haven't seen you around for a while, Batty."

Batty? Did I forget to mention that she had a thing for nicknames?

"Yea, well... I don't exactly make it a habit…" I answered as I pass her.

"Starfish hasn't exactly been feeling well, and I think he might have caught a bad cold."

"Oh?"

"Mmm, I'll bring up some tea later."

Tea was good. "…Mango tea?"

Mina chuckled at my need of that certain tea. I huff before running up the stone staircase. Time to infiltrate the pharaoh's domain.

—-

After tinkering with the lock, I slowly came to realize that there was a key that he had hidden under a certain place and then I was mentally slapping myself for being slow for not realizing it sooner. I removed my shoes out of habit, setting my backpack down on the wooden floor. The soft hum of the air conditioner was the only sound I could hear, aside from the ticking of a clock that was above his HDTV. Besides that, it was awfully quiet.

I looked around the area, noticing that the pharaoh didn't clean his dishes from the night before. He was such a clean person that it just… so _wrong_. I made my way further into the room, and a creaking noise of a door opening made me look down a small hallway. From the pharaoh's room on the right, was a fuzzy head of a dog, peeking out at me. His husky, Anahi, walked out while giving me a look. She approached me but then stopped a few feet away.

Anahi was a strange little husky that the pharaoh had saved from her previous owners. She was mostly husky with a smudge of wolf somewhere in her blood. Her coat was mostly grays and whites and the only black mark was around her eyes and the top of her head. It was the markings that made her distinctly of her breed.

The canine lowered her head, tail held up, and gave a low howl. Oh... two can play this game.

I walked closer, head held up high and I looked down at her. She gave another low howl so I replied with my own. I gave a howl, taking a step closer to her.

Anahi stepped back, pausing then before her tail started to wag vigorously. Damn straight.

The pharaoh's dog had a habit of trying to put her dominance on others. She did it with him a couple of times too, but always, whenever I stepped into the house, she would try to be the top dog. Such a weird mutt.

"He sleeping?" I asked, even though I know I wouldn't get an answer. Typical. I was talking to a dog now.

Moving passed the dog, I entered the pharaoh's room. His floor was littered with his work clothes and I noticed that I even smelled something medicinal. Urgh. Medicine. His laptop's light was on, giving the dark room with some sort of light to see with. Hell, the curtains were drawn closed and _that _was something strange.

And there he was; the person I was looking for. The pharaoh was in his bed, sleeping soundly. His blankets were half on him and from my view, it just looked like he had a battle of keeping the covers on. Coming closer, I found that his breathing was a bit… odd.

They were deep and he even looked flushed. I pouted. How do you deal with sick people?

—

I went around the house collecting pillows and blankets, throwing them on his bed. Anahi even grabbed her stuffed toy rabbit, which she never broke because the sickly one had insisted that it was her 'baby.' After grabbing what I needed, I began to build my nest. It was a simple enough construction really. I had to surround the pharaoh with pillows while leaving a little spot for me. I then threw the blankets over him and my spot.

Yami slept through it all, oddly enough, and sometimes even rolled onto his sides restlessly. Finally, when my nest was complete, I crawled under the sheets and went to sleep.

I was tired and my television skills of watching documentaries weren't lying. Human body heat actually increased the chance of getting better from being sick. So I might as well give a little... and besides, the pharaoh's bed was _amazing_.

It was so soft and just _heavenly_. Although, his room smelled distinctly of fruits, which I will not question because it was good, I was toasty and, somehow, the mongrel decided to lay herself on my legs. _Bitch_.


	6. Juice

I didn't know how long I was asleep for, but judging from the time on the digital clock, it had only been about two hours. Maybe a little over? I sat up slowly, scratching at my head as I gradually began to be more aware of what situation I had slept into. Looking over at the male beside me, I diagnosed that Yami hadn't moved at all in his sick-induced slumber.

Leaning over, I placed a hand on his forehead, feeling that he still had some sort of fever. I crawled out of bed, stretching enough to hear all the bones in my spine give a nice crack... all the way up. Urgh... I was getting old. I left the room to relieve myself in the bathroom and then came back to hear the persistent sound of something vibrating. The fuck?

I started to search the room for the noise till it stopped... then it picked up again, much to my annoyance. A minute later, I was able to find the bloody thing and it was the pharaoh's black touch screen phone... the exact brand I didn't know. I wasn't exactly the most technological geek out there, but I was just fine with the computer and video game consoles that I owned.

Fiddling with the device, I was finally able to unlock it. Two new text messages and a voice mail and they all came from the same person, but I didn't recognize the name at all. I bit the inner side of my lip, glaring at the contraption to give me some answer when it began vibrating wildly in my hand. I cursed, almost dropping the bloody thing on the plush carpet floor, but at the last second, I pressed the "Answer" button and put it to my ear.

"'Ello?" I snapped.

There was silence for a moment, but I could hear the person breathing.

"Erm... is Atem there?" came the curious voice of a woman. I couldn't exactly tell the age from this contraption, but she sounded young.

"Errr... yea," I replied as I looked down at the sleeping pharaoh. Who did he give his number to? "Oh good!" she said, sounding rather relieved. I couldn't fathom why.

"You're Bakura, right?"

The hell you know my name? I glared at the phone for a second before I returned to listening to her.

"Anyway! I was planning to come over to check up on him an-"

"Then, if you're coming over, I demand some teriyaki chicken with white rice for myself and then some miso soup for the sickly one."

I prodded my toe at said Pharaoh, who slept through the whole conversation. I wondered how I would wake him up. Hell, I was getting him some food from his 'friend,' so he might as well get the fuck up.

"Uh... alright, I'll get them on my way there."

"Good." Click.

I throw the phone on the bed, narrowly missing his highness. His foul mongrel walked back into the room with her tail wagging. I looked at her then and back to him before a brilliant, but sudden idea popped into my head. Time to execute plan Alpha, 'Battle of the Hounds.'

"I can't believe you did that!" the pharaoh whined, rubbing at the slightly bleeding scratch on his right shoulder. I couldn't help it if his brat had claws! I sat on the couch, arms crossed over my chest, a pout on my lips, and my legs crossed at the ankle. Anahi laid on the ground beside the chair I was sitting in, keeping her eyes away from me. Fine! I didn't want to see her either. Bitch.

The pharaoh stood in front of us, his eyes slightly glazed with sickness and his hair even wilder from the rough play that had been done right on top of him. I blamed him... mostly for not waking up from me and Anahi putting our weights on him. I mean, he fucking slept like the dead and he was usually a light sleeper.

But... he was sick...

I scoffed, looking away from his disappointed eyes. I didn't care.

He sighed and I hear him walk closer to me.

"Bakura, why exactly are you here." Oooh, subject change. Well, it's better than being mad at me.

"I was investigating," I stated as my eyes moved to stare at him. His face was still flushed, but it was better than before, that much was certain. At least that meant that he was slightly better... Maybe? Probably needed some tea in his system. So many good properties about tea.

His fingers snapped in front of my face.

"The fuck?"

"You were starting to wander," he stated, leaning back to stand at his full height.

_Oh_.

"So..." He started to make his way over to the kitchen and even his movements weren't full of energy like he usually was. How... boring. I leaned over the arm rest of the chair, watching his movements in slight fascination. "What did you find?" continued the pharaoh as he took a clean glass from the sink and started to fill it up with orange juice.

"Well, one, your room smells like medicine. Two, you slept through my weight and, three-" I put an emphasis on the "three" as Yami lifted the glass to his lips, taking a sip while those violet eyes of his were watching, "you're sick!"

I practically pointed my finger at him accusingly, leaning over the arm rest while only my lower body kept me from falling off. Which was bound to happen if I leaned out more. I should totally test that.

"Well, you've caught me," he said mockingly. Fucker.

I pouted, settling back into the chair with crossed arms. Why does he have to ruin my bit of fun? He took more sips from the glass as we stayed in silence. The hum of the air conditioner starts back up again.

"Oh yea! I got us dinner."

"...Dinner?" Yami stared at me in confusion.

"Yep! Some chick on your cellphone is coming over with food." _Because I'm awesome, and demanded it out of her, _I added in afterthought. He continued to stare at me with the nearly finished glass that was half way to his lips.

"Who?" he took another sip while I grinned.

"Yue, I believe."

The orange juice sprayed out of his mouth. He coughs hard, hitting his chest to get some air back into his lungs. I fall out of the chair, laughing hysterically. That was _awesome_! I had only seen it on television but to see it in real life was just, just... amazing! Anahi jumped up and went to her owner with a wagging tail. I hoped she found it just as amusing as I did.

Yami then rushed out of the kitchen, slamming his door shut.

"Damn it, Bakura! You should have told me earlier!"

I laughed some more, finally at the point where I couldn't even breathe. Well, damn pharaoh; I didn't know. Maybe you should've asked me these things first. Besides, it would have been even funnier if she had arrived and saw him in only his light blue PJ pants with little stars all around it.


End file.
